Cats Onwards

Chapter 30. Gus the theatre cat.

Jellylorum: Gus is the cat at the theatre door, his name as I ought to have told you before is really Asparagus, but that's such a fuss to pronounce that we usually call him, just Gus.
His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake and he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake, yet he was in his youth, quite the smartest of cats, but no longer a terror to mice or to rats. For he isn't the cat that he was in his prime, though his name was quite famous he says in his time. And whenever he joins his friends at their club, which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub, he loves to regale them if someone else pays, with anecdotes drawn from his palmist days, for he once was a star of the highest degree, he has acted with Irving, he has acted with Tree. And he likes to relate his success on the halls when the gallery once gave him seven cat calls! But his greatest creation as he loves to tell...was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.

Jelly looked down to Gus who had been listening intently, but as he realised that it was his turn to sing, he snapped out of his daydream state and cleared his throat.

Gus: I have played in my time, every possible part, and I used to know...uh...seventy speeches by heart! I'd extemporise backchat, I knew how to gag, and I knew how to let the cat out of the bag.
I knew how to act with my back and my tail, with an hour of rehearsal I never could fail. I'd a voice that could soften the hardest of hearts...whether I took the lead! Or in...character parts.
I have sat by the bedside of poor little Nell, when the curfew was rung then I swung on the bell! In the pantomime season I never fell flat, and I once understudied Dick Whittington's cat!
But my grandest creation, as history will tell, was Firefrorefiddle the Fiend of the Fell...

All of a sudden, the mood of the song darkened and Gus turned around to see what was the apparition of Firefrorefiddle stalk out. The old theatre cat was about to read out to the fiend when Jelly began singing again, her voice bright and chipper.

Jellylorum: Then if someone will give him a toothful of gin, he will tell how he once played a part in East Lynne. At a Shakespeare performance he w=once walked on pat when some actor suggested the need for a cat!

Gus: And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained as we did in the days when Victoria reigned! They never get drilled in a regular troupe and they think they are smart jus to jump through a hoop!

Jellylorum: And he says as he scratches himself with his claws...

Gus: Well...the theatre is certainly not what it was. These modern productions are all very well, but there's nothing to equal from what I hear tell...that moment of mystery when I made history, as Firefrorefiddle...the Fiend of the Fell...

Once again the apparition appeared and this time Gus stood up to follow it, Jellylorum watched on in concern. Firefrorefiddle bowed to Gus before dissolving away, leaving the elder cat in the middl of the yard alone.

Gus: I once crossed the stage on a telegraph wire, to rescue a child when a house was on fire...and I think that I sill can, much better than most...produce blood curdling noises to bring on the ghost!

Gus paused for a moment to release a series of strangled noises from his mouth, it was anything but blood curdling.

Gus: And I once played Growltiger, heh...could do it again!
Could do it again...
Could do it again...

Gus' voice grew softer as the memory of his first performance of Growltiger overtook his mind...he was young and so was Jelly. They weren't in love yet, nor were they friends, both ached for stardom and to share the stage was something that baffled the pair. But there were his dear friends portraying Growltiger's crew: Grimbskin, Tumblebrutus, Humbert, Cornelius, Damson and even dim little Butch...oh the adventures they shared.